The Orlando Senior Health Network would like to highlight one of our residents and his recent notable achievement. Daniel LaRouech, who has lived at the Orlando Lutheran Towers since 2004, was able to check off a “bucket list” experience on May 19th when he flew an airplane again, the first time since 1950. His children, knowing that this was a wish of Daniel’s, gave him his early Father’s Day gift: An hour and a half-long flight from Orlando’s Executive Airport to the East coast over Kennedy Space Center and back over to downtown Orlando where his proud family was awaiting his return. What did Daniel say about being at the controls again? “It was like riding a bike.” However, with all of the advances in technology, he did admit that he had to ask the Flight Instructor, “Where the Hell do you start it?” But, LaRouech is no stranger to flying: He served a total of 33 years in the military with the Air Force and is a Pearl Harbor survivor. His service included being a Tail Gunner on a B-17 flying missions in the South Pacific, then on to Europe as a Toggelier during the bombing of Germany and Austria and spending the last 20 years of his duty as an in-flight Re-fueling Instructor.
As if that wasn’t a big enough cause for celebration, the Saturday before his flight he was honored to be the Ring-Bearer at his granddaughter Marcy’s wedding. He gladly accepted the job, minus the part of throwing the flowers. J
We at OSHN would like to express our appreciation to Daniel LaRouech for sharing his stories with us.
